Leland Yee has been arrested on a number of corruption charges and dropped out of the California Secretary of State race, but 323,000 people managed to do what is pictured here as of the most recent count of California’s primary election held on June 3, 2014. It was too late to remove his name from ballots by the time he dropped out, but Yee still managed to get 9.6% of the vote as of June 7. This article and others ask – why did that happen?

Some possibilities have been outlined by the Mercury News and SFGate articles:

1. Some people don’t believe the charges
2. Some voters didn’t know about the charges
3. Some voters have a perverse sense of humor, and don’t care about the office
I don’t think that #1 is a major cause, given people’s general distrust of politicians and Yee’s long history of suspicious behavior. I don’t think that #2 is accurate, given that as one analyst puts it regarding primary voters: “older, wealthier, whiter, more likely to be homeowners, more educated … and more ideological true believers.” That leaves #3, which seems to me much more likely. I have to admit that I found the fact that Yee was still on the ballot was funny in an ironic way, but not funny enough to actually vote for him.

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david0688

Why wasn’t his name removed from the ballot?

Johnny Chan

Fcuk what the law is saying Mr. Yee, run for Sec of State….. I believe you are far less corrupt than those Judeo-Christian Fundamentalist goons and thugs that actually run the state. Reassert your moral character!

Terry “The Invader” Xu

You’re missing the most important reason: They vote for him because he’s the same race as them.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The only problem here is that Yee is a liberal and believes in stupid equalist BS. I don’t immigrate to be “equal” to the locals. Give me a real Asian nationalist.

Weird Al Yankovic

This didn’t suprise me considering the state of the other candidates. There were too many issues and circumstances surrounding the whole election. A lot of unanswered questions. Peterson was a businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, philanthropist, and author, who served as Secretary of Commerce. Padilla was a member of the governing board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

Weird Al Yankovic

“You’re missing the most important reason: They vote for him because he’s the same race as them.”

Hm…..really not sure it’s as simple as that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are some that’ll do that. But I’m sure it’s not even close to the majority of that 320,000 Asian voters. Just look at those of us who are discussing this seriously, for example. Would any of us do that? I doubt it. I think most of the Asian voters are just like us and take this seriously. We wouldn’t vote for someone just because they’re Asian, I’m sure.

iko: STFU mikey STORMloq, the same garbage that is found in STOMRfront. Aren't you yourself doing the same "...making subjective statements about your own ethnicity, just... – What Do White Supremacists Think of Asians?